Golf swing analysis systems and concepts for swing analysis systems have exited for many years. The existing systems typically have sensors attached to or within the club head or the club shaft or both and many communicate information wirelessly.
A system shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,736,242 to Stites, shows an integrated golf club with acceleration sensors on the shaft and in the club head and communicates wirelessly. The system also discloses a club head with an impact module that may include a strain gage. The system in U.S. Pat. No. 7,736,242 does not teach or suggest an integrated electronic system golf clubhead that integrates impact sensors into the club head face in combination with acceleration measurement sensors located in the club head and further does not teach an antenna system that utilizes the electrical properties and shape of the club head as an integral component element of the antenna system design to increase power efficiency and further operating time duration based on storage capacity of energy device.
Another example of attaching sensors to a golf club is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,898,389 to Plutt, who claims a self-contained device for indicating the area of impact on the face of the club and the ball, and a means for an attachable and detachable sensor or sensor array that overlies the face of the club. Plutt's device does not provide for an imbedded impact sensor array in the clubface that functions in conjunction with internal three dimensional g-force sensors to provide a superset of time varying spatial force impact contours of the clubface with club head acceleration force parameters that can be calibrated for highly accurate spatial and force measurement. Plutt's device is susceptible to location inaccuracy due to the removable constraint of the sensors and is susceptible to sensor damage since the sensors come in direct contact with the ball.
These systems fail to teach or suggest a self-contained integrated electronic system golf club head comprising the functions and methods of: measuring three orthogonal acceleration axes across time with accelerometer(s) from within the club head and measuring club face impact location and club face force profile(s) with impact sensor within the club face and support electronics with wireless communication capabilities located in club head that further facilitate transmit and receive functions through an antenna system that utilized the club head as an integral electrical element component of the antenna system to enable efficient electrical power usage that further enables a light weight combination of sensors and electronics and energy source that further enables the proper weight of an integrated golf club head comprising the combination of sensors and electronics and energy sources and club head shell structure that results in substantially the same physical performance characteristics of the overall system golf club head with respect to weight, center of gravity and coefficient of restitution as a regulation club head of similar type.
Examples of golf club head types include but not limited to: a driver golf club head type, a wood golf club head type, a hybrid golf club head type, an iron golf head type or a putter golf club head type. In addition, the club head must be made at least in part of an electrically conducting material such as aluminum, titanium or any other metal or alloy or combination of metals or alloys or a combination.